"Hamnet"

 

Two cinema visits in one week!

This morning I braved our snowy streets and caught a number 218 to the bus stop on Paternoster Row, right outside The Showroom. I was there to see the first screening of "Hamnet" directed by Chloé Zhao.

The first character we encounter in the film is Anne Hathaway. She is in a forest near to Stratford-upon-Avon and she has her hawk with her. That summer she meets a young William Shakespeare and as the sap rises, they fall in love and make a baby together.

They are married at short notice and soon after their first child is born - Susanna. By the way, in history rather than fiction, Shakespeare was eighteen at the time and Anne Hathaway was twenty six.

Two years later, in 1585, Anne gave birth to twins - another daughter called Judith and a son who was named Hamnet. Seven years later we find Shakespeare in London working in the theatre and becoming a playwright.

He goes back to Stratford occasionally to be with his family but London is really the only place where his literary genius can flourish.

In the 1590s, a pestilence that is usually referred to as The Plague sweeps across England and many die untimely deaths. One of those is young Hamnet who dies at the age of eleven.

The film suggests that the tragedy of "Hamlet" was somehow inspired by the death of Hamnet as in the sixteenth century the two  names were interchangeable. The film further proposes that Shakespeare was heartbroken by the death of his only son and sought a way of creating a lasting literary memorial to him. If that connection did indeed exist it was both elliptical and indirect.

Produced by Stephen Spielberg and Sam Mendes, "Hamnet" stars Jessie Buckley as Anne Hathaway and Paul Mescal as Shakespeare. The historical "feel" of the film is convincing with quietness, mud, timber-framed buildings, greenery, homemade clothes and dirty hands. Any accompanying music has been thoughtfully chosen or freshly written to enhance the atmosphere of the drama.

I thought that Jessie Buckley was exceptional and if she does not get an Academy Awards nomination for her role then something is seriously wrong. As a mother she is fierce and protective and the births of her children are portrayed in a loud, physical manner.

When Hamnet dies she lets out a cry that can only be described as a primal scream. It filled the auditorium with pain and loss and made me shed tears.

The film is based on a 2020 novel of the same name by Maggie O'Farrell. With her writer's imagination she had sought to fill in the gaps, fictionalising the relationship between Anne and William and how the death of Hamnet might well have affected them.

The reviewer in "The Guardian" gave "Hamnet" five stars and said this of the lead actress: "It is an unselfconsciously beguiling performance from Jessie Buckley, who gives every look and smile a piercing significance."